So It’s Supposed to Be About Oliver
… and really it is. But when I posted yesterday about the dishwasher where we used to wash Oliver’s dishes in order to save time to spend with Oliver (see, it is about him!) and how you never know, little did I think it would be a theme. Last night the microwave got added to the list. I should say, the microwave is functional. But the outlet near the microwave may not be.
I live in an area of Boston where there are mothers who would never dream of microwaving food for their kids. Steaming veggies on the stove is almost as quick and probably more nutritious, but then you have to remember to turn off the stove before you run and chase down your kid into the bedroom where he is needlessly throwing clothes reorganizing his wardrobe for the umpteenth time.
I am thankful for modern conveniences. I am thankful for modern conveniences.
Please don’t let any more of them go away for the next few weeks.
Please.
You Never Know
You never know how much you really appreciate something until it’s gone.
In this case, what is gone is our old portable dishwasher. Actually it is still in the kitchen providing an extra few square feet of counter space, but that is it the only capacity in which it functions right now. About the same time Jeremy’s car was totaled (and we realized how much we appreciated not having a second car payment) the dishwasher began to leak. We turned it off, parked it in the corner and went about the business of finding a solution to our car problems. We can wash dishes by hand, after all, but it’s hard to transport our Bear, Puppy, and groceries without a car. After we came back from vacation we decided to stop by the Home Depot and check out the stock of portable dishwashers. As it turns out, there is no stock. They can be ordered, but we really wanted to see one in person. Jeremy decided to go the local route and went to AAA Appliance in JP. Also no stock… and no options with casters. How do you get away with calling a portable dishwasher “portable” if you can’t get casters?!? So the discussion of getting a small scale dishwasher installed in our kitchen was resurrected. In the midst of all this research the dish pile began to grow. I’m amazed at how much time we spend doing dishes now. Time we don’t have, really. Our house, which was never very tidy to begin with, is now embarrassing because the time I used to spend holding back the tide of clutter is now spent washing dishes. So I now know how much I really depended on the old dishwasher. It wasn’t great. You had to do a pre-rinse (yes Jeremy, I know we shouldn’t have to pre-rinse) but you could hide dirty dishes away and let it run through the night and have clean dishes with but a few moments effort.
I have set a deadline of February vacation for a solution to the dishwasher problem. Either we will have one installed (and lose some cabinet space – a post for a later date) or free-cycle our old portable dishwasher and acquire a new one from Home Depot online. But whatever the solution, I will be MUCH more appreciative of our new tiny dishwasher, because you just never know.
Sock and Awe
… when parents stage a campaign for dressed babies by staging a two pronged attack of socks and shirt at the same time.
Done!
Baby Dance Party
Ever since Oliver started being upwardly mobile we’ve engaged in a tradition we like to call “Baby Dance Party.” Oliver likes to boogey baby-style to a variety of music. Unfortunately I’m a little short of video on this one as we are always too busy rockin’ out to actually shoot footage. In lieu of Oliver videos here are links to a few songs that we sometimes have on the playlist, courtesy of the Sesame Street YouTube Channel:
Jason Mraz, “Let’s Go Outdoors”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrqF7yD10Bo
Will.i.am, “What I Am”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVzjoj96vs
Elivs Costello, “Monster Went and Ate My Red 2”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxardpBReQc
Muppets, “Bohemian Rhapsody”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
We don’t always listen to children’s music during our morning rock outs. Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Paul Simon and Elton John are among those that regularly appear in our dance mix. Today we played Jack Johnson, “Banana Pancakes” as we were actually making banana (ok, plantain… but close enough) pancakes and pretended like we still had more time in the weekend.
Which begs the question…
Why is it that the three day weekends fly by just as fast, if not faster, than regular weekends?
Food
Oliver likes to eat. But unlike an adult, particularly an American adult, he does it on his own schedule and only when he is hungry. Sometimes that means he eats like a bird (birds actually eat a lot, so I’m not sure where that expression came from) and other moments have me worried that I’m inadvertently starving my son. Oliver has barely learned to feed himself, but he can shovel food into his mouth at a rate that is quite impressive. Tonight he had pasta, peas, butternut squash, chicken, and some applesauce as a chaser. Aside from the applesauce, Oliver was in charge of it all. Four months ago he was only on breast milk… How is time moving this quickly?
Perhaps, as I suggested to my friend Amanda (also a recent mother), there is some type of disturbance in the space-time continuum. A particular disturbance that must be localized around new parents.
Any physicists out there want to weigh in? If research hasn’t begun on this topic I think we should start immediately.
Bear Attacks Camera
A rare sighting of a bipedal bear. Attacking the camera no less!
BearAttacksCamera.mov
No bears or cameras were harmed in the making of this video.
No Team Affiliations
Jeremy and I have no team affiliations when it comes to college football. But we have a number of friends whom we love who do. Our friends Alice and Randee traveled cross country this summer and came home with a number of mementos for Oliver, which we cherish, so it was appropriate that on Monday Oliver showed some team pride on Alice’s behalf.
Roll Tide!!
Apparently the shirt worked! 
Our apologies to our nanny share family who are Razorback fans and were a little concerned about Oliver’s team gear on Monday morning. Luckily they were willing to let it slide as “he is too young to know better.” *phew*
There’s No Use Crying
…Over spilt milk. But at 6 in the morning when you dump 4 ounces that you just pumped on the floor and realize there is NO MILK LEFT in the freezer, you definitely want to cry.
Just sayin’
First Steps!
3 little steps today! We missed them, as they happened at playgroup, but I’m sure there will be plenty more to come soon.
Photo/video documentation as soon as we have it.
Two Weeks Ago
We spent our holiday break traveling amongst friends and family. All-in-all Oliver did well with the flexible schedule. In fact, even with all the running around his sleep seems to be getting back on track after a month of frequent wake ups. Yay!
We have come a long way in the last two weeks. Our family had a crazy start to the week before vacation. We were anticipating the arrival of my sister, Liz, on Wednesday evening and I was hoping to take advantage of her presence to hang out, chat, and maybe even go see a movie together. What happened instead was a text Monday morning from Jeremy stating, “Can’t talk now, but guess who’s getting a new car! Oliver, Calle and I were still in the house. The driver of the other car looks okay. More later.” Short story: Jeremy’s car was totaled while it was parked in front of our house. We are grateful that no one was hurt… Of course that is the most important thing… But oh man, was the timing horrible!
Liz was such a trooper. While she repeatedly says she “didn’t do that much,” she did. She amused and babysat Oliver while we ran around like crazy people trying to figure out what to do about the car situation. When all the craziness was finally taken care of, she was rewarded with Oliver’s cold. We never would have survived the week without her. Liz, we love you and THANK YOU!!!